Halo Infinite by Amir Zand

On @clayot 's suggestion, I got Before We Leave by Balancing Monkey Games and its reputation of chill city builder isn't undeserved. It reminds me of the Anno series with the different islands that can be colonized but without the tension of balancing a budget nor interacting with competing countries/tribes.

Instead building space is sparse, so there are real constraints on expansion. The more advanced production chains induce pollution and happiness penalties, so I've been mostly avoiding them since your people's happiness is a major goal given the associated speed/productivity gains/losses (50% to 150%).

So far I've been following the in-game tutorial, and I reached a point where it just says "Expand until something happens" and I'm mostly like "Nah, I'm good" but in a good way. I have a couple planets to explore in the solar system which I will get to, eventually, but making sure everybody eats their fruits and vegetables and wear clothing is more important to me, even though it doesn't result in any sort of monetary profits.

So far for me it's been more a people-caring game than a city-building one, and it's very good like this.

#videogames #review

Since I installed Disco Elysium: The Final Cut by ZA/UM a week ago, I practically inhaled it, playing it every chance I got, for as long as I physically could, until I finished it yesterday night in about 30 hours.

I knew I wanted to write about it because I have Opinions™ but when I opened a new blog post about it, I couldn't come up with any structured text. I still feel the need to write about my experience, and as a result the following may be a little discombobulated.

First of all, Disco Elysium is a full-on artistic experience. The graphic style, the music, the writing all are outstanding in their own right. The gameplay is also pleasing. The role-playing mechanics are clear and satisfying, with meaningful choices and a welcome tinge of randomness for tension.

As with most other RPGs with multiple choices within a linear story, I won't play it ever again. I enjoyed my playthrough that I made mine, and I don't want to learn the limitations of the choices, I don't want to find out about the narrative funnels I would be forced through.

Still, the game is pretty forgiving, and through the excellent inner monologue interjections, the game is able to regularly hint as negative dialogue outcomes to avoid them. It also affords to go meta and comment on some the player's actions rather than the actual character, which got some well-deserved laughs out of me.

The political content added in the Final Cut has been mostly disappointing. The game's nihilistic message doesn't leave a lot of room to develop any political ideology, and it results in a shallow criticism of all the presented ideologies that eventually amounts to absolutely nothing. Additionally, using some real-world political ideologies (communism, fascism) was confusing as the historical context, important to define these terms, wasn't the same at all. I developed this point earlier: https://friendica.mrpetovan.com/display/735a2029-1761-576b-54bd-625220881901

I also noticed in the credits the mention of the hosts of the Chapo Trap House podcast as voice actors, and combined with the aforementioned lack of political substance of the game, it confirms my belief that this podcast and the larger "dirtbag left" culture it represents has less to do with politics than entertainment.

#videogame #videogames #DiscoElysium #review

#introductions Better late than never, I'm Hypolite Petovan, this isn't my official name but it is my real name for all intents and purposes. I joined the #Fediverse on #Diaspora then #Friendica late 2016 after #Facebook froze my account for using this pseudonym for 10 years straight.

My social media policy is to read absolutely everything my follows post. As a result, I heavily curate my follow list that will never grow bigger than what it is now mainly for time constraints. Additionally, I don't automatically follow back and unfollowing isn't personal, your content just doesn't fit with my social media usage, no hard feelings.

I like liberally to signify I read, enjoyed or sympathize with a post without having anything meaningful to contribute further.

I also block liberally, users and whole instances alike, the world is too big and my time is too limited to give a second chance to bigots, racists, misogynists and transphobes (including TERFs). I host my own single-user node which makes any moderation decision easy.

My own editorial line is mainly about good-natured humor and social justice. Tone-wise, I do not mind aggressiveness but I do mind who it is targeted at. I do not tolerate edgy shitpost, and neither bad faith nor logical fallacies no matter how soft-spoken they are.

My personal interests revolve around #programming (mainly #PHP for #Friendica ), #videogames and recently #LEGO, but I'm curious about everything and have trouble specializing in anything and don't follow the latest news for any specific topic.

Hi! 👋